I should be studying for my next set of exams, but instead I'm procrastinating by writing on here.

My excuse for said messing about is that everyone needs to eat, right? I have to make breakfast, lunch and dinner whether I'm studying or not, and good food is helpful brain fuel. (You might point out that while everyone needs to eat, not everyone has to take pictures of their dinner and then write a few hundred words to go with it and put it all on the internet. I wouldn't disagree with you, of course, but still.)

This post, and a few coming up in future quite probably, is dedicated to the six-food elimination diet. A six-food elimination diet is one that excludes soy, nuts, fish, wheat, milk, and eggs, and it's one that I've been taking an interest in after a couple of people I know were prescribed it for auto-immune diseases, to try and identify the trigger food that's behind their condition.

Needless to say, I'm not a medical professional or dietician, but being a vegan I'm no stranger to avoiding milk, eggs, and fish, and I've been helping those couple of people come up with meals that suit their diet. Dodging fish, milk, eggs? No problem. Dodging nuts and soy? Bit harder, I'll be honest - I didn't realise until now how often I turn to a bit of coconut milk or soy sauce when I'm cooking.

So, here's one of my go-to six food elimination diet curry - it does include coconut milk, but you can swap that for Oatly cream, rice milk, or just a bit of water. And don't worry - if you're not on a SFED, this is still a tasty curry.

Ingredients

350g potatoes, chopped into medium chunks

Half a tsb turmeric

250g true spinach (or other spinach), roughly chopped

3tbsp of coconut milk/water/Oatly cream/etc

One white onion, finely chopped

One large thumb of ginger, finely chopped/pureed/grated

Three cloves of garlic, finely chopped/pureed/grated

Two tsp black mustard seeds

One tsp of fennel seeds

One tbsp of cumin seeds

One tin of chick peas, drained

How you do it

Warm some oil over medium heat, add the chopped onion, and leave to sweat off (remember to stir them occasionally in between getting on with other stuff!)

Put the potatoes and turmeric into boiling water and simmer until almost cooked. Drain the spuds, and set them aside.

Put the true spinach into boiling water for 2 minutes, then drain and refresh under very cold water until cool. Drain, squeeze out a bit of water with your hands, then blend to a puree. Add the coconut milk and stir.

Hopefully, the onion should now be cooked through. Add the ginger, garlic, and seeds and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the potatoes and chick peas, and continue cooking for another few minutes until warmed through. Add the spinach puree and cook for another minute.

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comments

You sound like a good person to have about should I ever start paring back my diet in lots of ways - this looks like an excellent use of procrastination time to me - lovely curry - and I was surprised that coconut is off the diet as I don't usually consider it a nut with people whom I know who have nut allergies.

it's a good point - most of the people I know with nut allergies don't count coconuts either, but there doesn't seem to be any consensus of whether you should exclude coconut as a nut for six food elimination diets, so I went with being on the safe side.

I wish you well in your exams, but you can't ignore the people who count on you for inspiration, so your posting is justified. The curry sounds delicious, and had you not mentioned the missing ingredients, probably no one would have noticed.

I almost always eat spinach raw but it is SO good cooked! I had some at Easter yesterday that my dad made and I was reminded of that. It's also so brilliantly colored.Hope it fuels you through the tests.

Good luck with the exams, I adore the spinach greenness in this recipe. I am with Johanna re coconut and nut allergies, interesting. I do an #eatyourgreens challenge and this would have been a lovely entry.

About me

Hi, I'm Joey. I'm vegan, and I'm chuffed about it. Seriously, it's cool right? If you're a vegan, you'll know what I mean. I've never learnt to cook so much tasty, experimental food since I went herbivore a few years back. I live in London, and I like that too.

I'm a journalist when I'm not writing here, and I don't mind that either. If I'm not cooking, then I'm reading vegan blogs, making stuff, down the pub, or studying. If I'm not doing that, I'm probably asleep.

If you'd like to get in touch, drop me a line at flickingthevs [at] yahoo co uk